I'M NOT AFRAID/ A POEM BY MICHELLE SECORD

I’M NOT AFRAID

6/24/2011

MICHELLE Y SECORD

I long to see Your glory Lord,

Surround me with Your cloud

Let me step into the light, let me look into Your eyes

I want more …of You Lord

And I’m not afraid

And I’m not afraid

Let me be on my face at Your feet

Let our two hearts become as one,

Blessed, Holy, Son

I want to know You

I want to know You

Send down Your cloud Lord,

And Your double-edged Sword

Pierce my heart with Your truth

Let me ever hold to You…

I want to step into Your glory,

And I’m not afraid,

And I’m not afraid

You have written every word of my story

And it’s to be lived for Your glory!

So surround me, astound me, never let me go

Behold, I am engraved on the palm of Your hand

A love so pure, so hard to understand

Take me Lord, into the Beautiful Land,

I want to know You…

I want to know You…

MISSIONS IN PAKISTAN

I know that nobody reads my blog, and I haven't posted anything in a long time, so why would you right? The truth is I'm so not used to having a blog that I forgot it was here! I'm a stroke survivor, so we tend to forget things, a lot of things!
Anyway I wanted to write about my friend Naheed. She's a single woman who heard the Lord's call to missions, so she went. She just went. I wonder how many stay home instead, where it's safe, comfortable, nothing risky. She lives in Pakistan where we talk on Skype and she tells me almost everyday about more Christians that were killed by the Muslims that hate them. The Christians have the lowest paying jobs, if they have jobs. Their houses and churches get burned down all the time. They can't get visas to leave Pakistan because the Muslims run the embassy and they only let Muslims travel out of the country. I was talking to her today about the evils of radical Islam, but she cautioned me that we can't talk about that because if someone overheard the conversation, she could be killed! That thought NEVER even occurred to me, living here in America, where we are so free! I'm not writing this as a bash Muslim piece, just as a WOW what a different kind of life kind of piece. We take SO much for granted here in the United States as American Christians! Yet there are so many of our beloved brothers and sisters living in danger every day of their lives! Naheed walks from village to village to spread the Gospel message and she, like Paul in the New Testament becomes all things for all people so that she might save some, if you know what I mean. She eats what they eat, respects their customs, becomes like them without compromising her faith in Jesus Christ. She is Jesus to the people around her and His love and His light shine out of her like a spotlight in the blackest night. She challenges me to be better at shining my light for Christ, and to be brave about sharing my faith. And it should challenge ALL of us here in this country who claim Christ as our Savior and Lord! We know NOTHING, really, of TRUE persecution, but we might. Will we stand for our Lord THEN if we barely stand for Him NOW? And trust me, my questions are aimed at myself as well! We need to WAKE UP out of our stupor and GO AFTER IT for our KING! Let's fulfill the GREAT COMMISSION to the best of our ability so that our brothers and sisters who are being killed aren't dying in vain!
Blessings!
Michelle

CHEAP GRACE AND HOW IT CAN COST YOU YOUR LIFE

OT A CHEAP GRACE

BY MICHELLE SECORD

MAY 23, 2002

THE GRACE OF THE LORD IS NOT A CHEAP GRACE,

JUST REMEMBER JESUS ON THE CROSS

AND THE AGONY UPON HIS FACE!

IT CAME AT GREAT COST AND

WE ARE CALLED TO ENTER

THROUGH THE CROSS!

WE ARE CALLED TO LEAVE IT ALL AND FOLLOW HIM!

GRACE IS NOT AT ALL A LICENSE TO SIN!

WE TREAD UPON HIS PRECIOUS BLOOD,

WHILE WE WILLINGLY STAY IN THE MIRE AND THE MUD.

HIS GLORIOUS NAME IS TRAMPLED AND MADE FUN OF,

AND WE STAND GUILTY, HOLDING THE BOXER’S GLOVE!

DARE WE TREAT THE LORD WITH SUCH DISDAIN?

DARE WE CAUSE BLASPHEMY

TO FALL UPON THAT HOLY NAME???

THE GRACE THAT JESUS BOUGHT WAS VIOLENT;

SO HIS DEATH UPON THAT CROSS.

FOR HIS NAME WE MUST NOT BE SILENT,

WE MUST LIVE FOR HIM TOTALLY

AND ALLOW HIM TO REMOVE ALL DROSS!

DO NOT LOVE THE WORLD

OR LIVE LIKE THOSE WHO ARE IN IT!

WE ARE CALLED TO BE HOLY AS HE IS!

COME OUT, COME OUT AND BE SEPARATE.

You know a lot of people these days, many claiming to be "Christians" are out there stomping all over the precious blood of Jesus by the way they CHOOSE to live. We are empowered by the HOLY SPIRIT living INSIDE of us, as believers, NOT to sin. We can make that choice. But instead, many are using God's AWESOME, EXPENSIVE GRACE to live as THEY CHOOSE instead of how Jesus has commanded us to live. Now Christianity is about RELATIONSHIP and NOT about following a bunch of rules and regulations. But think about it. What kind of relationship do you have with The King of Kings if you are living AS YOU CHOOSE, TO PLEASE YOURSELF??? Don't you know that living to please yourself breaks Jesus heart and also calls into question whether you are really truly saved? If you're willing to keep living with sin in your life, YOU HAVE A PROBLEM. Jesus says,"Why do you call me Lord and then NOT DO AS I SAY?" It's time for a major reality check in the Christian community. People need to get off the fence and take sides. Jesus says we are either with Him or not, we're together with Him or we scatter. He doesn't leave room for fence sitting. So the question is, WHO ARE YOU GOING TO SERVE??? OH< AND THE ANSWER TO THAT QUESTION? IT DETERMINES WHERE YOU SPEND ETERNITY, SO IT"S THE MOST IMPORTANT QUESTION OF YOUR LIFE!

THE SOVEREIGNTY OF GOD

Bring out all the people who are blind, yet have eyes, who are deaf, yet have ears! All the nations gather together and the peoples assemble. Who among them can declare this, and show us the former things? Let them bring their witnesses to prove them right, and let them hear and say, It is true. "You are My witnesses," declares the Lord, and My servant whom I have chosen, that you may know and believe Me and understand that I am He. Before Me no god was formed, nor shall there be any after Me. I am The Lord, and besides Me there is NO SAVIOR. I declared and saved and proclaimed, when there was no strange god among you; and "you are My witnesses," declares the Lord, "and I am God. Also henceforth I am He; there is none who can deliver from my hand; I work and who can turn it back?"
Isaiah 43:8-13
Okay, so there's this whole "openness" theology going around these days, a FALSE DOCTRINE, that teaches that God doesn't know the future, that He is sitting on pins and needles like the rest of us, waiting to see what's going to happen and then He really isn't powerful enough to do anything about it anyway! Really?? Seriously??? Were these people dropped on their collective heads? I would have them read JUST the book of Isaiah. Does that quote I gave you give you the impression that this God we serve is NOT ABSOLUTELY SOVEREIGN, OMNISCIENT, OMNIPOTENT. Do you know one HUGE reason you can KNOW the Bible is God's inerrant, God-breathed ONLY ABSOLUTE TRUTH? Because first of all, it's the only book that DARES to tell the future and then BE RIGHT 100% of the time. Yes you heard me correctly, 100% of the time. Take just the prophecies concerning the first coming of Christ, hundreds of them and Jesus fulfilled them ALL, LITERALLY, down to the smallest period and apostrophe! That's the way God ALWAYS fulfills His prophecies, LITERALLY, meaning we are to take them that way and not try to spiritualize them or write them off as metaphorical speech. Which is what unknowing but well-meaning Christians do to the prophetic book of Revelation. Just because the Apostle John had trouble describing things that were going to happen in OUR generation back in the FIRST CENTURY so that his descriptions are a little mysterious sometimes, people write The whole book off as nothing but a symbolic battle between good and evil. Give me a break. Do you know there is a special blessing in the book of Revelation for people who bother to take their time, open their hearts to the Holy Spirit, and read and understand the importance of this precious book. Jesus called it the Great Tribulation, do you think He would really leave us with NO information about that time period?? I don't think so.
"Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this PROPHECY, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near" Rev 1:3
I don't know how I got to Revelation from ISAIAH, but the Holy Spirit was just moving me along. I guess my whole point would be that we serve an incredible, SOVEREIGN, all-knowing, all-seeing God who takes His word and how we handle it very seriously and if GOD Himself refers to a WHOLE BOOK in the Bible as PROPHECY,  and yet to be fulfilled prophecy at that, then so MUST WE. We don't have the option of picking and choosing what parts of the Bible to believe and what not to believe. If we claim to follow Christ then we must TAKE IT ALL. And you know? It's pretty black and white. It's man who tries to complicate it and who twists it so that it means what THEY want it to say instead of taking what God has clearly stated!
Bless you my brothers and sisters!
Michelle

Lord,

            We thank You for all of the gifts that You give us. You give us the strength to speak out for You and You have given us a full understanding of the truth. We have been given every grace and blessing; every spiritual gift and the power for doing Your will Lord. You guarantee that right up to the end You have promised that we will be counted free from all sin and guilt on the day of Your return. We thank You that You are true to Your Word. We are honored Lord, that You invited us into a relationship with You. Praise You Lord for taking us out of the kingdom of darkness and bringing us into the Kingdom of Jesus Christ, thank You so very much for saving us Jesus. Lord, please forgive us for our many failings and weaknesses, our sins that are ever before us. We despise the weaknesses we see and feel in our flesh! We long to be more like You Jesus!

Thank you that You are continually changing us and molding us into Your image and that when we see You we will be like You, perfect in You at last! Thank you for Your unending protection, Your “Amazing Grace,” which is amazing in such a huge way!

We long for You every day, to see You, to touch You, to look into Your eternal eyes and see love for us there! WOW! So hard to imagine You smiling at me!

We acknowledge Lord that all things come from You and we owe you unending thanks for all of Your incredible blessings! You wonderfully and graciously give us all things that we need, for You are the God who gives.

Let us never forget to bow our knee before You.

You are the Lord, You are the only Savior, there is no one else.

Your enemies will be put under Your feet and You will rule all!

All glory and majesty and power to You oh Lord! We praise You and honor You. May all worship and prayer rise up as a sweet aroma to You our King.

Maranatha! Come Lord Jesus! Please come quickly Lord!

Love,

Michelle

Blessings

I was blessed with the opportunity to bless a friend who is a pastor in Africa this week. He needed a cell phone. Sounds so simple to us here in the US doesn't it? A cellphone...no big deal, just go to your local Best Buy or wherever and buy one. But it's not that simple there in Kenya for him. They have such limited resources that even one of their PASTORS was having to BORROW someone elses cell phone, which as all pastors know, is something VITAL to their mission these days. Yet it was something His ministry could not give him. So we sent 200.00 to him and now he can buy his own cell phone. So why am I posting this? NOT to pat myself on the back I assure you! But to point US here in AMERICA, where WE HAVE SO MUCH that we CAN DO SO MUCH MORE! I know these are hard times here right now, we feel them too, but we are still RICH compared to the rest of the world. As CHILDREN OF THE KING OF KINGS, I just wanted to encourage you, my brothers and sisters in Christ to have hearts that are open to give where the Lord will lead because we are SO BLESSED WHEN WE BLESS! Just knowing that we were able to help one brother in need was SUCH a blessing in itself! SO, BE ENCOURAGED! BLESSINGS!!!